Phillipsburg Gets Funds For Special Education

May 07, 1985|The Morning Call

The Phillipsburg School District has learned it will receive more than $85,000 in flow-through funds from the state Department of Education for the benefit of the district's special education program during the 1985-86 school year.

Schools Superintendent Peter Merluzzi said last night the district receives money every year from the state for the program "to provide services for handicapped kids above and beyond" what the district would be able to provide without the funding.

The district received a total of $87,560 from the state, in line with past allocations. Merluzzi said part of the money will be used to hire an additional learning consultant as well as a speech therapist. The program now operates with two learning consultants.

A letter was received from the Andover-Morris School parent-teacher group concerned about the fact that there is no nurse on duty at the school on Thursdays.

According to the letter, about 300 children attend the school and many are accident prone. The group feels there should be a nurse at the school at all times, and says it is "unfair to place this burden on the rest of the staff."

The group was also worried that Cynthia Frantz, a nurse at the Freeman and Barber schools who is taking a sabbatical next year, would not be replaced.

In response, Merluzzi said that someone would be hired to fill Frantz's position next year. He also said that there is no requirement a nurse be stationed in every school building and that the district has more nurses than the state requires.